Order of Five Sons
History Founded in the late 1860’s by Southern gentleman, originally as a way to reverse the legislation that came out of the Civil War, the Order of Five Sons is currently the most powerful secret society on the planet. With ambitions that extend beyond political power, and with a web of influence that spreads further than that of even Arachnos. Led by a council of five men, the Order has, of total, an all 100+ members. It’s two most significant leaders are amongst the worst non-powered archvillains in the world: Harold Kilroy and Jackson Etcher. Harold Kilroy, known as “The Politician” within the Order, is the Representative of Arizona’s 6th District and the current Speaker of the House of Representatives. The true mastermind of the Order, goal setter, and planner, Kilroy seeks nothing more than to become Earth’s sole global dictator, with Etcher as his right hand man and the hero community virtually non-existent after his plans for a global purge. Jackson Etcher, known as “The Scientist” within the Order, is “publically” a Defense and State department advisor to the President and, through an alias, on the board of directors of McFaires Enterprises. However, Etcher is believed to be the most intelligent, well-informed, and ingenious member of the Order, as his base of importance serves to make the ability to take control of the globe into a reality, which includes his own scientific specialty: genetics. On a side, but very significant note, Jackson Etcher happens to be the lost biological father of the infamous Messenger/Ambassador, who both eventually cross paths as designed by the former. Freedom Project - 2011 Conducted specifically by Jackson Etcher, with a small team of fellow geneticists, Etcher realized that his son, Jason, was born with a strength that was, at an infancy age, comparable to that of five body builders put together. After analyzing his DNA, Etcher's suspicions were confirmed that he had indeed inherited a gene that came somewhere from his wife's line and, more importantly, that this gene was greater than any current hero possessed. As he began to conduct his tests, his wife, Sherri, stole away with her son and gave him up for adoption, knowing her husband would eventually track them down and kill her. And she was right. Not two months after Jason's birth Sherri Etcher found her name in the Paragon Times obituary section and by the time Jackson reached his son's adoption holding, the boy had already gone to another happy family, and one that Jackson dare not mess with: the Liberty family. Before Sherri turned on her husband, Jackson Etcher consulted with his fellow Order of Five Sons leaders and came to the agreement that this was the breakthrough they were looking for, a way to take control. With the help of [[Harold Kilroy|''"the Politician"]] and ''"the Businessman,"'' the Freedom Project was created as a way to create the perfect agent of the Order: they would use Etcher's son as that agent. However, once Jason fell into the hands of the most powerful family in Paragon City, plans changed. With only dying samples and theoretical experiments, Jackson Etcher was tasked with splicing and engineering the same gene into a new host. The following were his experiments: :''With Freedom Project Genetic Altercation Sample 22, the first human experiment, Desny died during the procedure and, unique and dissimilar to the others, never made it to maturity. With FP-GA-23, Schovinov's engineering procedure went better than expected, although, like the trend that would soon be apparent, the Etcher-cells showed minuscule, yet significant deterioration. With FP-GA-24, Tavares' genetic splicing procedure revealed minuscule, though significant Etcher-cell deterioration. With FP-GA-25, Reid's genetic splicing procedure reveals minuscule, though significant Etcher-cell deterioration. With FP-GA-26, McGuire's cloning and maturing procedures revealed Etcher-cell stability and success. Although the other experimental subjects were failures, the deterioration of the Etcher-cells were so insignificant that the subjects' would retain their abilities until after their coming of age. And due to this, the Order was willing to allow them to live, as they considered themselves as no infanticidal murderers. This inaction would lead to the rising of heroes Mini Soviet and Garados and the villain Black Messenger. Dormancy - 2012-2035 After the Freedom Project's success, the Order of Five Sons remained relatively dormant in group activity. Individually, its members played their roles into rising into success. Harold Kilroy was elected as a Representative of Arizona and eventually made Speaker of the House. Jackson Etcher made his way into the board of the directors of McFaires Enterprises in effort to overview his biological son's upbringing and maturity under the alias of Philip Hainesworth (he wouldn't become part of the State or Defense departments until closer to the beginning of World War III). Winston Clark, known as "the Hero" to the Order, made his public debut as Paragon Jack by saving Paragon City's mayor, thus earning his way into the higher ranks and respects of the upper levels of the hero community. Assassination of Lio Rynard - 2035 Just after the end of World War III in 2032, Statesman outted his adoptive great-grandson, Jason Etcher, as being gay and in a relationship with Ty Rynard, a prodigy of another well known Paragon City family. Jackson Etcher, having been unaware of his son's orientation until that point, brought this news and his raging anger to the council meeting at the start of 2033. There he was able to convince the council to unanimously agree to a plot that would, by design, spark their plans for taking control into action. After much preparation, the mercenary hitman, known as Scope, was hired by the Order once again. On May 1, 2035, Scope assassinated Lio Rynard, Ty Rynard's father and infamous Paragon hero. While the official investigation commenced under Lio Rynard's brother, Paragon City Chief of Police Krisc Rynard, one of Lio's older brother, Jason Etcher and Erek Rynard, Lio's twin-older brother, led their own private investigation which led them to a link between the still unknown assassin and Jackson Etcher (as part of the design). Once discovered and tracked down to an abandoned apartment building in the Faultline, Jackson Etcher was nearly beaten to death by Erek Rynard before Etcher Jr. and, upon their arrival, the PPD restrained the vigilante. Although little communication between Etcher Sr. and Jr., Jackson Etcher was eventually released into FBI custody and released officially as "no evidence was able to link Mr. Hainesworth to the murder of one Lio Rynard." Rise and Fall - 2035-2036 Just as the evidence predicted, the subjects of Project Freedom began to lose their powers, starting with Mikael Schovinov. After fighting alongside his Soviet Defenders of the Motherland teammates against a Nemesis faction in Moscow, Mikael lost his powers mid-battle and ended up in the hospital with an amputated arm and paralyzed from the waist down. Soon too did Emerico Tavares and Thomas Reid, though they, fortunately, lost their powers during safer times. It was only after the fall of the Black Messenger that the Order launched their new weapon into action: the brainwashed, near mind-controlled female clone of Jackson Etcher's son: Sharon McGuire. Calling her the New Messenger, McGuire attacked Jason Etcher, now known as the Ambassador, in his and Ty's apartment in Steel Canyon. As the battle raged on between the couple and the more powerful tanker, the Liberators arrived on site and were able to drive the seeming doppelganger away. After several confrontations and no words exchanged, Jason Etcher finally managed to get McGuire to speak. Her words were "Daddy sends his regards." This was enough to set Jason off and before he knew it, McGuire lay dying and permanently crippled beneath the debris of the statue of Talos. McGuire was apprehended by the Freedom Phalanx and as Paragon Jack meant to retrieve her, he too was apprehended. With the skills of Numina, Clark eventually gave up the existence of the Order and the names of his fellow leaders. As Clark named three high profile names, and their aliases, the President of the United States ordered their arrests, the examinations by Numina, and had the Department of Justice pursue tries of treason. In the end, all 100+ members were rounded up, most given life sentences, and four out of the five members were in fact executed, including the mastermind, former Speaker of the House Harold Kilroy, who had attempted to take his own life with a pistol just before his arrest. The only member kept alive was Jackson Etcher, who only avoided the death penalty when Ty Rynard spoke up and declared that for the sake of his father, death would be too good for him (the Lio Rynard assassination had also been linked to him upon the discovery of the Order). Jackson Etcher was placed into a shadow maximum security prison, where he was placed into a solitary confinement cell that was suspended in midair. Only a week into his stay did they find and identify his corpse as him, the initials "E.R." cut into his chest and his entire body a smoldering waste. No investigation was pursued. Members Leadership *''"The Politician,"'' Harold Kilroy (leader) *''"The Businessman"'' *''"The Engineer"'' *''"The Hero,"'' Winston Clark/Paragon Jack *''"The Scientist,"'' Jackson Etcher Others *Scope (non-member; often contracted out to) *Sharon McGuire/New Messenger Category:Organizations